Show Reviews

Just like Pittsburgh last year, people down voting this show right out the gate. For Shame.

This show was marvelous top to bottom.

S1 highlights were a fiery Blaze On, Infinite proving itself a willing new jam contender, 46 Days > Sparkle > David Bowie to finish the set in absolutely fine form (and all kinds of meat and sludge on dem bones from this gloomy cloudy sky that the band so loved).

Say what you want about #Line, or Miss You or Show of Life... but this second set is an all timer.

DWD is better than any version this year and can rival recent classics like NYE 2017 and Alpharetta 2016.

IAWITW is also a jam monster and fit the mood of this show greatly. Had some NYE 17 Steam to it and sludged around beautifully.

The Q4 of this show is beyond worldly.

Light... holy balls
Mike... mighty balls
Groove... happy balls

My last shows were BD and I’m having trouble with how this show would measure up. Its definitely different in a crazy gloomy kinda way... but man, I wouldn’t dismiss ppl coming back to this show for a long long long time. Balls.

And just a personal point, so glad I got a Hydrogen again (first time since my first show).

This show was pretty good. Not at the top of my list of ones I’ve seen but not at the bottom. I need to go back and relisten to a few things but the show had its ups and downs.

Crowd control opens it up and it sort of got the crowd moving. Not personally one of my favorites but an interesting opener. Didn’t expect to get a NMINML since they played it in Alpharetta. It’s nothing super special but got my feet going. Blaze on had a good peak nothing to write home about though. Lawn boy was on the funnier side tonight. A nice outro by Page that got some laughs. Infinite had a little jam. Worth a relisten even though the song isn’t super spectacular imo. Wilson really rages the place. Interesting little jam in it. Roggae was beautiful. Not a really long jam but go check it out if you haven’t. Rift is rift. 46 days gets a crunchy funk jam in the beggining. A couple flubs by Trey here and there. Sparkle never does much for me. Bowie is dark and abstract. The jazz really came out in this one. Even the peak was obscure.
First set gets a 3/5. The set had some nice moments but nothing got insanely crazy. Nothing over 10-11 minutes either as far as I remember.

Down with disease will be gold on the jam chart. Just listen to it, it’s magnificent. Everything you want in a jam. Then of course a bdtl comes. I’m really against this song overall and t’s a pretty good one but just a let down after such an awesome dwd. IAWITW was cool, lots of computer noises from page. Miss you wasn’t expected. Light is great. Jam chart worthy. Mikes was very weird. At first I thought trey was having some trouble with his guitar. Then it almost seemed like he was doing this weird things on purpose. None the less this jam gets so damn good for the length. Into hydrogen and a decent weekapaug.
Second set 3.5/10. A decent set but too many ups and downs in the songs. The second they got us going they hit us with a weirdly placed song.

I loved this show last night. The band was in sync from note 1 and having a blast. I was lucky enough to be in the pit and their expressions said it all: Trey was fist pumping after Crowd Control and even Mike was smiling for much of the first set....The energy in the room was off the hook for the first three songs and then the set veered into many different directions all well played. Looking at it on paper, it’s a dense first set chock full of goodness....The DWD deserves all the praise and more that will inevitably be heaped upon it. The jam went to 4 - 5 distinct sections with each one flowing oh so smoothly into the next one. I honestly could have left happy at that moment....The next batch of songs I’m sure will have many people complaining about a lack of energy. While the songs may not have had a fast pace, they more than made up for it in the feeling behind them. BDTNL almost had a ballad type feel to it tonight as it’s bouncy quality was toned down a bit. I was into it and Miss You is such a great passionate song these days....The Light caught me off guard, but I was soon immediately right there with them. Another killer jam here that led into a surpring and always welcome proper Mike’s Groove. I’ll take this trio any time, any show....The Show of Life was a perfect cool down encore....All in all I would give this show a 4 for song selection and playing and a 5 for the feeling surrounding it all. I personally thought the band was playing with more gusto than the shows I saw on the MSG Holiday Tour. Can’t wait for tonight! (PS - for some reason I couldn’t make separate paragraphs here so the .... denote where they would have been)

My fourth show ever. Previous three were Jimmies, Boston Cream, and 12/30/17. So it stands to reason that I'd eventually hit a less than perfect show.

But name another band that, 30+ years into their career could have an "less than perfect" night that hit the peaks of this show? I'll wait....

Still waiting....
Still waiting....

Yeah. I thought so.

I like Crowd Control and was happy to catch it as the opener, but it wasn't blazing or mind blowing. Same with NMINML and Blaze On. Passable, good, not great... The band was finding their groove. Lawn Boy was still Lawn Boy (not Lawn Man). Infinite was good, and being the second performance, you can see its potential. Then we got the obligatory Wilson a few miles away from King of Prussia, PA was welcome, and after that came the first "moment" of the night. Lately, each outing of Roggae has been outstanding. This was no different. Maybe this won't rank as an all time great, but there's no question, the band is feeling this song every time, and it's always a treat these days.

Rift has seen better days, but I boogied nonetheless.

That 46 Days??
Yeah. We're gonna be talking about it for a while. Mark it in yellow on phish dot net and so the world will know its value. Check it out. Great Great Great Great performance. One of the tunes that BENEFITS from Trey's current pet effects and dirtier tones.

Sparkle was Sparkle, and Bowie was smokin'. And the first set ended on a high note....

Set 2...
DwD. We'll talk about it at the end of the year with the "Jam of the Year" discussions. It went deeeep and found some glorious spots, and it got weird and it got dark and it got funky and it got spacy and it got Number Lined, which was alright, which went into IAWITW, which is growing and evolving, and it kinda felt like things were going off the rails and Miss You sucked the wind outta the joint, but except, it didn't. Somewhere near the end, Trey found It and them sweet dirty tones lit up that song, and there was no place else to go but into the Light (a song I've caught in my last 3 shows) and this one went places. Beautiful, weird, type two(?) types of places... If not official Type II, definitely far out Type I.

Mike's Groove was fun but sloppy. The "You Sexy Thing" thing was a cool thing, but it was evident that they weren't all playing as one. But it was fun. Always always fun.

And Show of Life, the only remotely rare song of the night, sent us home, and all was well...

This is probably my only show of 2018 (unless an NYE run in NYC is happening), and while, on the whole, it wasn't the mind blowing experience of my first three shows, it was mighty fine to be there.

This was a fun show- not live altering, but enjoyable from start to finish. The scene was cool, the vibe was friendly and the boys were having a great time. Bowie, DWD and Light call for multiple re-listens and the Mikes groove was a great set closing surprise. I feel lucky to see these guys year after year.

I’d like to think they played Crowd Control, No Men in No Man’s Land, Blaze On, and Wilson in response to the prior days’ .net debate about the Alpharetta3 performance and its recap. All four songs have lyrics that read directly on topic. And all four were played with fervor baby!
...
Amazing band, amazing community.

That DwD is INCREDIBLE! Easily the best jam of the summer with the Alpha-Ghost, Gorge CDT & Twist close behind. The jam had everything, including relentless energy until the last few minutes, easing us into a gentle landing. Jazzy and Sticky Mike Bass lines, spacey synth leads supplied from page, Trey using effects and standard shreds to build PEAKS ON PEAKS ON PEAKS out of no where. Mikes new song Infinite is really great, and definitely shows jamming promise. That jam alone should have made it worth the trip out there to see the P Fish.

Set 1: [Crowd Control, NMINML, Blaze On] was a safe start but solid playing all around to lift us into the show, [Infinite] I'm a fan of this new Mike tune. The type I jamming in it's debut at the Gorge from Trey was very promising as a jam vehicle and they deliver again here with Page taking his crack this time [Wilson] was nicely tucked in to keep the energy up, [Roggae] is another beautiful masterpiece, they really have nailed every version of it on summer tour thus far [Rift, 46 Days, Sparkle] were all pretty standard and super high energy songs to cap the first set [Bowie] they kept the lid on this one at only 11min which I was happy about since I'm not the biggest Bowie fan.

Set 2: [DWD] opener is an unbelievable jam! [#-] can be hit or miss depending on the flow of the show, but it's a beautiful Trey song and it's an enjoyable version [IAWITW] I love the synth on this song just wish Page would power up more thru the lyrics [Miss You] great mid-set ballad to settle us down [Light] is another major jam vehicle! [Mike's Song, Hydrogen] has a rough start and can either be taken as funky fresh new version of the song or a complete flub [Weekapaug] they make up for it and share in the groove to end the second set!

(and now for some extra words since I can't leave the small snippet above, but maybe with just a few more words, or maybe it's just ridiculous that I have to add this, but that't the way that they make me do things, although this is absolutely a ludicrous requirement)

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